OTTAWA, Ontario /PRNewswire/
- CENX, a global leader of Lifecycle Service
Orchestration solutions for software-defined and virtualized
networks, today announced that it has finalized new equity
investment totaling $12.5 million USD. New investors BDC Capital, Mistral
Venture Partners, and VMware joined the Series D financing round,
in which all
current investors participated: Highland Capital Partners,
Mesirow Financial Private Equity Inc., Verizon Ventures, a
subsidiary of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, NASDAQ:VZ),
Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), DCM Ventures, and Cross Creek Advisors.
This
investment will help accelerate CENX's global market and portfolio
expansion in addressing emerging requirements for Lifecycle Service
Orchestration (LSO) for service providers that are evolving to
Software-defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions
Virtualization (NFV) technologies. CENX's Cortx Service
Orchestrator is an essential enabler of SDN and NFV deployments,
leveraging the power of network big data analytics for dynamic
provisioning, visualization and assurance of data services across
heterogeneous physical and virtualized networks.
Ever-growing demand for enterprise and consumer Cloud-based
applications is driving service providers to change the way they
operate their networks, and to turn to software systems that
support agile service delivery and real-time service assurance. The
LSO market is forecasted to grow at a CAGR of nearly 60%,
reaching $2.7 billion by 2019, according to The
Rayno Report, fueled by carrier SDN and NFV markets that are
increasing 50-80% annually.
"We
welcome the market, business and partnership perspectives that
VMware, BDC Capital, and Mistral bring to CENX,"
said Ed
Ogonek, President and CEO of CENX. "We are seeing tremendous
demand worldwide for our Cortx solution, delivering tangible value
in today's networks and empowering the evolution to virtualized
networks and services with NFV and SDN. With the support and
confidence of our growing investor group, we continue to expand our
world-class team to meet these global opportunities."
"CENX
is at the forefront of the fast-rising LSO market with its Cortx
Service Orchestrator, and we are delighted to support its continued
global business growth," said Ron
Warburton, Managing Partner, IT Venture Fund, BDC Capital.
"This is a great opportunity to bring Canadian innovation to
mobile, wireline, and cloud service providers worldwide."
"CENX
shares VMware's vision to deliver innovative solutions for
virtualization and cloud computing," said David Wright, Vice President, Operations, Telco NFV
Group, VMware. "With more and more carriers moving to NFV, there is
a real need for CENX's high-scale, real-time LSO solutions to
ensure high service quality end-to-end across both physical and
virtual network infrastructure. We look forward to participating in
this industry transformation."
"The
Board is very pleased with CENX's business progress and, on behalf
of all the investors, we're excited to be part of its next stage of
growth," said Sean Dalton, Partner with Highland Capital Partners, and
Chairman of the CENX Board. "CENX has been building its global
footprint and organizational competencies aggressively
year-over-year, driven by strong demand for its Cortx solutions. We
see that trajectory continuing as operators transition to
next-generation data networks."
About CENX
CENX provides Lifecycle Service
Orchestration solutions that automate fulfillment and assurance of
advanced data services in software-defined networks, bridging
physical and virtualized network functions. We harness the power of
real-time big data analytics and web-scale computing technologies
to dynamically fulfill, visualize, navigate and assure data
services across multi-vendor, SDN and NFV networks. CENX solutions
are deployed by service providers worldwide to create new revenue
streams, gain service agility, reduce operational costs, and
deliver quality-assured data services. www.cenx.com
About BDC Capital
A subsidiary of BDC,
BDC Capital offers a full spectrum of specialized financing and
investment solutions to help Canadian entrepreneurs achieve their
full growth potential. With more than $1.6 billion under management, BDC Capital takes a
strategic, patient approach to nurture companies' development over
the long term. From venture capital to equity to growth and
transition capital, our team of over 100 experienced, local
professionals partner with entrepreneurs to identify and meet their
needs on flexible terms. Some of the sectors in which we specialize
include IT, industrial/clean/energy technology, and healthcare. For
more information, please visitwww.bdccapital.ca or follow us
on Twitter at @BDC_Capital.
About Mistral Venture Partners
Mistral
Venture Partners is an early stage focused venture capital firm
with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Palo Alto, California. We partner with exceptional
management teams who strive to make a global impact by leveraging
unique Internet-related IP. Mistral sets itself apart by leveraging
a network of Executive Fellows who are not only investors but also
longtime operating experts who can help build companies into global
technology platforms. www.mistralvp.com
Links and search terms
www.cenx.com
www.cenx.com/about/overview.html
www.cenx.com/cortx-service-orchestrator/
www.cenx.com/about/service-orchestration.html
CENX,
Cortx Service Orchestrator, Lifecycle Service Orchestration, LSO,
Cloud, data center, network functions virtualization, NFV,
software-defined networking, SDN, IP, Ethernet, big data analytics,
OSS
Follow CENX
www.blog.cenx.com
www.twitter.com/cenxinc
www.linkedin.com/company/cenx-inc
www.youtube.com/cenxinc
For
more information: Hannah Whitrow, Zonic Group PR, [email protected], +44
(0)1672 550126